Age: 34

Family: Parents, Bill and Mary Godefroid; siblings, Marla, Bill, Maria, Marissa and Marcia

Home Parish: St. Catherine Laboure in Sappington

Education: St. Catherine Laboure; St. Mary’s High School; Kenrick-Glennon Seminary pre-theology program; Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome

The call: As a young professional in the golf industry in Atlanta, Father Godefroid asked himself, “Is this all there is to life?” He began reading more about his Catholic faith, which he previously hadn’t taken seriously. A desire for truth and true happiness began to pierce his heart, and he began living out his faith in his daily life. God providentially put several priests in his life, which eventually prompted him to ask: “Is God calling me to be a priest?” After a few years of discernment, he saw that God was, indeed, calling him to the priesthood.

After years of formation, “I am still struck by how God continues to call me closer to His Most Sacred Heart. It is the love of Christ that impels me in my journey to conform my life evermore to His holy priesthood. The one desire that I have carried through since the first time that I thought God was calling me until now, is to bring Jesus and His teaching to His people.”

As a priest, Father Godefroid looks forward to helping others to develop a relationship with Jesus. “It’s like any other relationship,” he said. “You have to spend time with that person. If you want to know somebody, if you really want to call them your friend, it takes time.” We hear about Jesus at Mass and through the Scriptures, “but we don’t sit with Him,” he said, adding that it can be difficult with the noise and distractions people face. “We know that God speaks in that silence. So we have to create that silence in our lives and just be willing to sit with Him.”